Purple Mountain or Zijin Shan (Chinese: 紫金山, Zĭjīnshān, lit. "Purple-Gold Mountain") is located on the eastern side of Nanjing in Jiangsu province, China. It is 447.1 m (1467 ft) high, with the lowest point 30 m (98 ft). Its peaks are often found enveloped in mysterious purple and golden clouds at dawn and dusk, hence its name.
A small mountain with an area about 20 square kilometres (4,900 acres), Purple Mountain is a mountain related to many historical events of both ancient and modern China. It was originally known as Bell Mountain ( 鍾山, 钟山, Zhōngshān) and also became known as Mount Jiang ( 蔣山, 蒋山, Jiǎngshān) after Sun Quan named Jiang Ziwen, an Eastern Han official whose spirit was said to haunt the site, as the mountain's god during the Three Kingdoms era.
More than 200 heritage and scenic tourist sites are now located in or around the mountain, among which include three national historical sites, nine provincial historical sites, and 33 prefectural historical sites. Located in or close to the hillside of Purple-Gold Mountain, there are also about a dozen national research institutes and universities.
Purple Mountain has 621 species of vascular plants, from 383 genera, 118 families (including 78 cultivated species).
Famous quotes containing the words purple and/or mountain:
“While making this portage I saw many splendid specimens of the great purple fringed orchis, three feet high. It is remarkable that such delicate flowers should here adorn these wilderness paths.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,
The sleepless soul that perished in his pride;
Of him who walked in glory and in joy
Following his plough, along the mountain side:
By our own spirits are we deified:
We poets in our youth begin in gladness;
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)